There exists many computer operating systems such as Windows operating systems (Windows 3.1™, Windows 95™, Windows 98™, Windows 2000™, Windows NT™, Windows XP™), Macintosh operating systems (Macintosh System 7™, Macintosh System 8™, Macintosh System 9™, Macintosh OSX™), Unix based operating systems (FreeBSD, IRIX, OpenBSD), Linux, and others.
Regardless of the computer operating system employed on a modern computer, a modem computer system typically includes a mass storage device for storing files. Frequently, the mass storage device has a single partition, but the mass storage device can also be subdivided into several partitions. A partition is managed by a file system, and the type of file system depends upon the computer operating system. Among other things, a file system determines the layout of files and metadata in the partition in terms of blocks, allocates blocks, handles read and write system calls, maintains buffer cache, and handles input/output operations for movements of blocks to/from the partition.
A computer operating system will generally support (read and write) several file systems, but generally no single computer operating system supports every file system. Thus, it is difficult to share and access files across different computer operating systems when the files are stored in a partition that is not supported by the different computer operating systems. For example, a computer running the Linux computer operating system cannot access files stored in a New Technology File System (NTFS), which is native to the Windows 2000™ computer operating system. Similarly, a computer running the Windows 2000™ computer operating system cannot access files stored in a Unix File System (UFS), which is native to the Linux computer operating system. Thus, a dual boot computer system that can boot-up in either Windows 2000™ or Linux, where the Windows 2000™ computer operating system uses a NTFSpartition and the Linux computer operating systems uses a UFSpartition, cannot access files stored in the NTFS partition when the computer system is running the Linux computer operating system nor access files in the UFSpartition when the computer system is running the Windows 2000 computer operating system.
Thus, a heretofore-unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.